Photo/Illutration Mitsuyo Hoshino (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A young girl stands all alone in an underground train station. A boy boards an evacuation bus, leaving his father behind.

News photos arriving every day from Ukraine capture children's fearful eyes. Will they be lucky enough to see their parents again?

"Images of war are too painful for me to look at because they inevitably bring back memories of air raids," said Mitsuyo Hoshino, 88, a resident of Tokyo's Arakawa Ward.

On March 10, 1945, Hoshino was 11 when her parents, older brother and younger sister were killed by U.S. incendiary bombs.

Hoshino happened to be in Chiba Prefecture that day, having been evacuated out of the capital.

She and her two surviving younger siblings--a little brother and a little sister--became orphans.

They were shunted from one relative's home to another as unwelcome burdens, and Hoshino had to endure the hurtful treatment.

One evening, she learned of a plan to forcefully evict them, and she trembled with terror.

"I was too worried to sleep that night, imagining becoming separated from my sister and brother," she recalled.

Over the ensuing years, Hoshino grew increasingly frustrated and upset that many war orphans were dying without getting a chance to talk about their tragic experiences.

Resolving to not let society turn a deaf ear to their painful memories of being demeaned as street urchins and discriminated against, she interviewed 10 war orphans like herself and published a book titled "Moshimo Maho ga Tsukaetara" (If I could work magic).

She also turned her interviewees' accounts into drawings and held exhibitions.

According to the United Nations, more than 1.5 million Ukrainian civilians have already fled their country. One media report concerned an 11-year-old boy who endured an arduous, solo journey to safety.

The longer the war drags on, the more war orphans there will be, inevitably. Just imagining what lies ahead of this misery tears at my heart.

This year marks the 77th anniversary of the Great Tokyo Air Raid. Will there ever come a time when the world never creates war orphans again?

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 8

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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